Article January 9, 1909 Issue

"With God all things are possible," but no-things are not...

Alfred Farlow

Boston Times

"With God all things are possible," but no-things are not possible with Him. All that exists is by virtue of the divine possibility; in other words, God made all that was made, "and without him was not any thing made that was made." The Scriptures also declare: "And, behold, it was very good." That which is not good is not of God, does not exist by reason of divine possibility, has no foundation in fact, and must, therefore, be classified as error, which Mrs. Eddy defines in Science and Health (p. 472) as "that which seemeth to be and is not." God created all things as they really are, but not as they appear to that comprehension of mortals which is not able to perceive God's creation as it really is.

The Bible truly teaches, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." This text signifies that the going away of the personal Jesus ushers in the "second coming." The disciples believed the teaching, "Flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God." They knew, therefore, that Jesus did not take his material body into the spiritual realm. They knew also that he did not leave it behind him to be buried. The answer to the question. What became of the material phenomenon called flesh? is that he rose through spiritual understanding into a perfectly spiritual mental condition. Jesus had gone from the perception of human eyes, and yet remained as he said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

To understand the Master's demonstrations whereby he overcame the flesh is to understand the impersonal spiritual individuality which his fleshly appearance had typified. The same understanding which enables mortals, as eyewitnesses of the truth, to lose their belief or faith in the flesh or matter, also brings into their realization or perception the spiritual Christ. Hence the statement, "This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The text does not read, and does not mean, that the personal Jesus will come again. It does not read, and does not mean, that he will return in the same form in which he went away, but that the second coming will be after the manner of his going away. His going away was a spiritual demonstration. His return is also a spiritual demonstration.

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